Getty The Cleveland Cavaliers are ready to trade Kevin Love.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are ready to trade Kevin Love.
According to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Cavaliers — who are currently in the midst of another lackluster season at 5-16 — are ready to listen to trade offers for the five-time All-Star and former NBA champion.
“One player that a lot of teams have on their radar [is] Kevin Love in Cleveland,” Wojnarowski said on SportsCenter. “He’s signed for another three years and there are a lot of teams, especially in the West, who would like more size to get in that championship chase, and I’m told that Cleveland is ready now to listen to offers on Kevin Love… If somebody blows them away with an offer, this is a team clearly still in a rebuild. He’s going to be a player very much in demand, and I think there’s going to be a lot of conversations between Cleveland and teams all over the league about Love.”
Love is Due To Earn Roughly $30 Million Per Year
Love is 31 years old and just signed a four-year, $240 million extension with the Cavaliers in 2018. That contract extension means that he has three years left on his deal after this season and that he’s due over $31 million in each of the next two seasons.
The 12-year NBA veteran is currently averaging 16.7 points and 10.7 rebounds per game on 44.6 percent from the field and 37.6 percent from beyond the arc — respectable numbers and about on par with his career averages and efficiency of 18.2 points and 11.2 rebounds per game on 44.2 percent from the field and 37.0 percent from beyond the arc.
The question is, which teams want to commit to Love for the next four seasons, especially considering he will be on the downside of his career and owed an average salary of roughly $30 million per season?
Kevin Love’s Potential Value to Teams
The only teams who would be willing to make a deal for Love are championship-contending teams who believe a stretch four veteran will push them over the top as favorites. In other words, these are teams that would use Love as a third offensive option the way the Cavaliers did when he played third fiddle to LeBron James and Kyrie Irving en route to a championship.
Despite the past two seasons being absolutely disastrous for the Cavaliers in the post-LeBron era, Love hasn’t shown much of an inclination to leave Cleveland. In fact, he stated back in October he wants to remain in Cleveland — for some odd reason.
“I do want to be [in Cleveland]. I always have,” Love said in October. “I say that knowing it’s the NBA and it’s a business. I think especially after seeing last year, the summer leading up to last year and this summer, the changeover is like unprecedented so you don’t know what is going to happen.
“If they decide to go completely young … and that could be the case, but it’s funny, my agent didn’t call me one time this summer to say, ‘Hey, you’re getting traded, there’s talks that this is happening.’ Of course, somehow it’s still out there and people are talking about, ‘Oh, Kevin would be great here or great there.’ I just keep it moving and try to do right by these guys because we have a good group.”
Although the Cavaliers and Love appear to have a good relationship, Cleveland is a rebuilding franchise and Love is an aging veteran — it’s time for both sides to move on from one another for the good of each side.